Pusher in bgy Luz gets life for shabu

A drug pusher from barangay Luz was sentenced yesterday by the court to life imprisonment for selling a pack of shabu to a poseur-buyer in 2005. He was also made to pay a fine of half a million pesos.

Regional Trial Court Branch 58 Judge Gabriel Ingles rejected the alibis of 37-year-old Ramel Misterio and instead gave more credence to the testimonies of the policemen who arrested him on the evening of December 7, 2005.

Police claimed they arrested Misterio during a buy-bust operation, but the accused strongly denied the charges. He said he was just framed up by the arresting officers.

Misterio narrated that while he was at the second floor of the house of a friend named Dondon Alforque, he saw moments later that somebody was chasing Alforque.

He quickly went down to verify. Upon seeing his friend going upstairs hurriedly, he said he gave way for him to pass.

But because he was the one chanced upon by the policeman standing at the stairs, PO2 Nathaniel Sta. Ana collared him and charged him with a crime he said he had never committed.

Misterio said that prior to that, Sta. Ana already recognized Alforque. In fact, the police shot Alforque with a handgun but hit instead the leg of another person. Alforque escaped by jumping out of the window, he said.

But the court rejected Misterio’s defenses, saying “this court finds it difficult to believe that such Dondon Alforque really was present, considering that this court finds highly doubtful the narration of the accused.”

Meanwhile, the court acquitted a suspected drug user in barangay Calamba after the prosecution failed to establish his guilt beyond reasonable doubt.

Judge Ingles acquitted Christopher “Albert” Bontilao despite the fact that he failed to present his defenses after he had jumped bail.

The policemen said that while they were about to raid an illegal gambling den in A. Lopez Street, the people scampered including Bontilao who they said was in possession of a pack of what was believed to be shabu.

Ingles said the police failed to prove that Bontilao was among those who participated in the illegal gambling activity, but they arrested him for alleged shabu possession.

However, the court wondered as to how the policemen could have seen the pack of shabu being held by the accused, considering that it is “such a small pack and if held by a closed hand, it cannot be seen.”

“The evidence of the prosecution does not prove sufficiently the validity of the warrantless arrest of the accused,” Ingles said. – Rene U. Borromeo/MEEV